(ThyBlackMan.com) Over the years of listening to hip hop continuously, I learned that there were three types of rappers in that hip hop music consists of: you have the “rappers rapper“, the one who everybody in hip hop culture, fan or rapper, consigns. The mainstream rappers, who have the appeal of hip hop heads and the MTV audience, then you just have the wack rappers who dumb themselves down to be wack and irrelevant. A common trait the first two types of rappers usually share is that regardless of one’s success, they each have two things they have going for them: Being authentic and having respect in the hip hop culture. Kanye West and Jay-Z is respected just as much as Raekwon or Big Daddy Kane. Well Kanye may not be seen in the same light as Kane, but you won’t hear snarls or grunts from the average hip hop head if Kanye’s rap skills is brought up. As for the rapper Drake? Well…
No respect
The past few years, mainstream music has seen Drake come in and essentially dominate and he recognizes himself rightfully so as a part of the elite in rap. His style of music, which isn’t common in hip hop (whining over girls, his infatuation over stripper girls, depressed over a missed opportunity over girls, and oh yeah partying and fame) has appealed to the teenage boys, girls, and the mainstream blogs. I even personally believe that he influenced those corny quote pages on twitter and what not.
But one particular group Drake has yet to win over and probably never will is of course the hip hop heads. Doesn’t matter if you’re a fan, a blogger, or a rapper, hip hop heads usually don’t respect him at all. Dude is the most dissed rapper since Ja Rule in his post-Down 4 U era. When I say a hip hop head, I mean the “my favorite rapper is Rakim/Nas, and my favorite rap group is 
ATCQ/The Roots/De La Soul” type hip hop fans. They are accustomed to raw lyrical abilities, so Drakes case is new to them. Hip hop heads will probably say, “Yeah, Drakes a dope rapper and all, but he’s mad corny and soft“. If I had a nickel every time I heard an older friend/family member/blogger/Charlamagne tha God quoted that about him, who knows the amount of money I would have. The shots at Drake are daily, and as long as Aaliyah stay on his back, it will continue.
The Beef
To hip hop cultures respect, Drake does everything wrong in terms of masculinity. Nothing’s wrong with being emotional, but the repetitive whining, raps on lost love chances, and softness just seem to grind their gears. It doesn’t help that to them he’s now trying to be hard (Mad at the tattoo man for tattooing his name on a girls forehead, the songs Lord Knows, Right Above it, and we just can’t forget the Headlines video, Nike Gloves!) that causes his obvious disdain within the rap community.
Being authentic is everything in rap music. You don’t have to be the hardest dude to touch the mic, or brag about being a huge ladies man; most rap fans just want their favorite artist to keep it simple. AKA: Be a man. Act the part. Leave the R&B songs and crooning to the R&B singers. That’s obviously the part where Drake falters and is dismissed as soft and not a true MC.
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Spit yo game
I talked to my friend Tab and she just absolutely does not like Drake at all. Tab is 18, but most of her fellow peers love and is fascinated by him. The Marvins Room video up above is one main reasons his constantly dissed and ridiculed. I began realizing the lyrics are something I would expect a high schooler to say. “F**k that n***a that you love so bad/I know you still think about the times we have” or “I’m just saying, you can do better”. Drake is at the bar drunk, caught in his feelings, and like Charlamagne said, Drake created the “Player-hater anthem”. But regardless, this past summer Facebook posts and tweets/retweets on my twitter timeline consisted of these very lyrics from the 20 & younger (my generation) But I didn’t like it and just about every person over 25 I conversed with didn’t either. That’s when I realized usually the men 25 & older grew out of the “simping” stage probably while they were in college or so. So to them, crying over a female is seen as weak, effeminate, and not being a real man.
When Common basically dissed him off his track “Sweet”, it was a true testament just how much rap culture don’t like his singing and sappiness. Here’s an excerpt from the song before the second verse.
“Yeah, man
Y’all n****s man, you soft m**********rs
Yeah my man, m**********rs
Then come around my crib
You know where I’m from
Some h*e a*s n****s
Singing all around me man, la la la
You ain’t m**********g Frank Sinatra
Uh, lil’ b***h
Yeah, this the raw right here
This the raw right here n***a
Sweet m**********rs
Sweet a*s b***h m**********rs!”
You could say that Nelly was a sing song rapper too in his prime, but he doesn’t really apply to this. He still maintained his hip hop credibility because he met relatable songs and everyone enjoyed them. Common’s reference of Drake being “Sweet” Is something Nelly never had to worry about. To be called such a word is obviously relating to being a homosexual or having the tendencies of such. In hip hop, homosexuality is nearly taboo to speak on but it goes on, and to be referred as such a word is nearly damning as basically having no grounds of manhood whatsoever.
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I must say that I don’t have a true problem with Drake, but the sappiness, singing, and his flat-out corny ways of operating I can perfectly see why someone like Common, would verbally attack him. Drake biggest problem is that he made himself so vulnerable to be attacked, that it would almost be impossible to ever get the respect he wants. No matter what he do or say he will get criticized for being too-this or not being that. The Headlines video below Drake talks about catching bodies or make someone around him prone to do the same. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t being literal but that didn’t help his cause with the hip hop community either. It was just seen as another attempt from the Degrassi kid trying to toughen up. We know that Drake isn’t hard and he also isn’t a true rapper in its essence. But the question that begs is that WHO does Drake really want to be?
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The case for Drake.
When Kanye West released 808’s & Heartbreaks, everybody seemed to give him a pass seeing that his mom passed and he recently broke up with his girlfriend. For Drake, his emotionally themed rap is a part of his music and with his latest album Take Care, he may just release a R&B album one day in his career. While we can dismiss and name-call the rapper all we want, we can’t deny the musical talent that the young artist possesses. The quality of music he released on Take Care, had many music pundits giving him critical acclaim. But of course there were some who still chastised him for being soft. They have a point with his melodrama antics, but still overall the album was good music. But if Drake wants to stay in the “game” he got to do two things:
- Stay the way he is.
- Don’t retaliate, just keeping composing good music
If he don’t do that he will end up like Ja Rule, if Ja would have stayed on his Always on Time pace, he could still be here today, and not in jail. Ja was already too deep in the realms of pop music to turn around and try to be the Venni Vetti Vecci Ja Rule. When 50 cent dissed him he should have stayed in his new lane, and that was proof when he dropped “Wonderful” in 2004 which went to number five on the charts. That’s not bad for a song to go that high, especially when they didn’t start counting digital downloads as a part of the chart calculation process for the Billboard Hot 100 until 2005. But for Ja, it was too late and he fell off the radar.
(Conclusion)
As stated in the prior paragraph, If Drake lets the drama get to him then he will just continue to look like a fool to the hip hop heads. His album Take Care seems to be a bold statement that number one, he is corny. Number two he always will be sappy. And number three he got to be content that if he does the first two steps he will always be dissed. It’s up to him to decide what he wants to do. But I can say he’s getting older and the bubble gum topics for the teens are going to run thin soon. So to conclude, maybe he’s not the rapper we want him to be, but if Drake keeps taking the negatives to make for better pictures, like platinum plaques, then that’s fine with me.
Staff Writer; Brad Washington
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